I Had Shingle When I Was 18. at 27 Now I Have Been Infected with Chickenpox.

Updated on January 23, 2018
E.M. asks from Bronx, NY
8 answers

Could it be that I have had chickenpox twice? I have read that chickenpox come first then shingles later. So what's happening to me?

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K.B.

answers from Houston on

Sounds awful. I know people recommend calamine lotion ...I don't know if it honestly helps most but I would also try Benadryl gel and/or 40% Zinc Oxide in a diaper rash cream such as the Equate brand. Good Luck!

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J.B.

answers from Boston on

Good questions for your doctor. A typical progression would be to get chickenpox as a child if you weren't vaccinated and then maybe get shingles as an adult (usually middle-age or older). Even more rare would be to get chickenpox after shingles (which would actually be a 3rd flare-up of the virus...the first round of chickenpox, then shingles, then another round of chickenpox) but it can happen.

Did you actually have chickenpox as a kid or were you vaccinated? Perhaps you were only partially vaccinated or had an ineffective batch of vaccine? It is possible to get shingles or chickenpox after being vaccinated because it doesn't give the same level of immunity as actually having the disease typically does. It's rare but it happens (and is why the booster was recommended starting a few years ago).

Anyway...it's strange. Definitely ask your doc what she or he thinks, and I hope it's a mild case for you and that you feel better soon!

4 moms found this helpful

D.D.

answers from Boston on

usually you only get chicken pox once because your system builds up immunity to it so you avoid a second infection. However you can get it again if your immune system didn't build up the immunity for this. I'd probably check with your physician on this

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T.F.

answers from Dallas on

You should discuss this with your Dr.

4 moms found this helpful

B.C.

answers from Norfolk on

It's possible but it doesn't happen very often.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/...

I had chicken pox as a child and it was miserable.
My sister and I had them at the same time and our mom just stood us in the tub and slathered on the calamine lotion - it didn't help the itching much.
Besides the fever and feeling crummy we had pox all over - inside ears, scalp, mouth, all over arms/legs/torso - it was impossible trying not to itch and I still have a few scars from it 50 years later.

By the time we had our son they had the vaccine for it so we made sure he got it.
I'm glad he never has to go through what I had to go through.

1 mom found this helpful
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D..

answers from Miami on

Talk to the doctor.

1 mom found this helpful

S.T.

answers from Washington DC on

what does your doctor say?
khairete
S.

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N.B.

answers from Oklahoma City on

My mother always told me that sometimes you didn't get a bad enough case of childhood illnesses and you got them worse when you were an adult.

I took this to mean that some people had stuff and didn't really know it. You might have had one or two spots and none of the other symptoms. So you got the virus but it just wasn't enough to break you out fully. Then you got shingles. Now you've been exposed to someone who had a full out case of it going on and you got a full exposure.

So no, you didn't get them full blown twice, you probably got them one time in a very very light way and then you got them full out.

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